Does the Clean Election program work?

The gubernatorial part of the Clean Election law has been changed. Candidates in 2010 must raise $40,000 in seed money from Maine donors, with individual donations capped at $100 (previously, no seed money was required), and must collect $5 donations from 3,250 individual donors, up from 2,500. Will this raise the bar high enough, or too high?

Is it important, and worth the public’s investment, for candidates for governor to be free from big money donors? Is it also important for candidates who do not have personal wealth to be able to compete with those who do? Or should the program be scrapped altogether?